On March 13, 2010 a season high 9,062 fans met at the TD Garden to watch an attempt by the Boston Blazers to overcome an awful start in the season against the Buffalo Bandits.
In the first quarter, the Blazer’s Cosmo and Bandit’s Thompson both gave great performances in between the pipes. In the first 12 minutes Thompson led in the number of saves with 16 and Cosmo 12. But it was Cosmo who gave in when Mark Steenhuis fired an overhand laser to the bottom right post at the 2:46 mark.
Soon after, Bandit Jon Harasym took full advantage of a fast break, sprinting down the field to put one past Cosmo with 58.5 seconds remaining.
Jon Harasym wasn’t the only player who took advantage of opportunities. When Blazers star Dan Dawson saw his opposing defensemen Chris White lose hold of his crosse, Dan Dawson gladly answered with an assist to Daryl Veltmen. The first ended with Buffalo leading 2-1.
The Second quarter started slowly like the first. Unlike the first it was a Blazer who put up the first goal.
Brenden Thenhaus made a great individual effort to slip past Buffalo’s defense. Thenhaus then bounced a shot at Thompson’s feet that found its snug home right below the crossbar at 4:30.
With Jack Reid in the box the Bandits capitalized in the power play, adding one more goal to John Tavares vast career.
At 2:48 Matt Lyons proved he was a role on the team with a goal from Nick Cotter’s rebound. But Cosmos lack of effort on a particular ground ball that gave Tavares an easy goal at 1:01.
The Blazers got their act together and executed a play that produced a goal from Brenden Thenhaus.
To conclude the second quarter Dan Dawson ripped a shot right in front of his defensemen’s face from up top. The score at the half was Boston 5 Buffalo 4.
At halftime the non- profit, Boston based organization MetroLacrosse had some of its high school participants play a scrimmage. You could feel their excitement of playing on the floor just vacated by their idols. Just like the pros, the young stars played a competitive game. Players from both teams played with daring moves to find the back of the net. They put on quite the game for the ten minutes they had on the floor.
The third quarter was a sad one for the Bandits. The best highlight of the third was Nick Cotter’s risky crease dive that was rewarded with a goal.
Matt Abbot showed exactly why he is the fastest Blazer when he scored just nine seconds after Cotter. This brought the Blazers to a 3-point lead with 7-4 on the scoreboard.
Unlike the third quarter where the Bandits came shy on goals, they came back swinging in the fourth. The Bandits kept the Blazers with seven points as they caught up with goals from typical Bandit scorers Tavares and Montour, but it was Vyse who got them the extra 2 points they needed for the lead. Vyse accomplished this with a sneaky cut and excellent shot off a well-made Buffalo play.
In order to keep up with the Bandits, the top Blazers needed to step up. So they did in a power play lead by Dan Dawson’s behind the back assist and Brenden Thenhaus who finished the job. This brought the game into OT.
Unfortunately the Bandits were too much too handle. In overtime the NLL veteran John Tavares dance his way around Kyle Ross. This gave Buffalo the win with an underhand shot past Cosmos legs.
The Bandits celebrated to extreme, making the Blazers feel disrespected. Some pushes were exchanged between the teams, but no one got hurt. Nothing changes the fact that the Blazers lost. Such a lost is not an easy one to take in the city of champions. However, the Blazer still have a chance to consecutively clinch a playoff spot and a title.
Jay Kirby is a 10th-grader at Chelsea High School.
The Blazers Beat is a student reporter program which provides high school students access to the Garden on game nights. Students will receive a media credential for a game of their choice, access to the post-game player and coach press conference and can write a game recap which the Blazers will help to publish with their local papers. For more information, contact Krista Olson, Marketing & Event Operations Manager at krista@blazerslacrosse.com.